


For the First Time, For the Thousandth Time

by LadyRavenEye



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-05
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-10-22 22:02:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17670932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyRavenEye/pseuds/LadyRavenEye
Summary: There are thousands of realities and millions of planes and billions of sentient beings and the only constant throughout them all is soulmarks.They bloom and fade, blur and sharpen. Turn gray when a soulmate dies, turn black when a soulmate doesn’t quite die.And Taako, as long as he can remember, never had a soulmark he could fully see.





	For the First Time, For the Thousandth Time

There are thousands of realities and millions of planes and billions of sentient beings and the only constant throughout them all is soulmarks.

They bloom and fade, blur and sharpen. Turn gray when a soulmate dies, turn black when a soulmate doesn’t quite die.

And Taako, as long as he can remember, never had a soulmark he could fully see.

The splotches on both his hands. A pink smudge on his ankle. The blue on his back, that sometimes flickered to black (whatever _that_ meant). The twining periwinkle and orange on his arm. A deep purple on his hip. Worst of all, the unfocused darkness over his heart

Children were a mess of blurry soulmarks. They hadn’t met most of their soulmates, or their soulmates were also children, which were both reasons a mark wouldn’t be clear.

So all of Taako’s soulmates might be _children_. He doesn’t even _like_ children.

He meets Angus McDonald and gets his very first focused mark - the pink smudge blooms into a pair of glasses. Taako hides it behind boots and barbs. Angus is delighted when a matching wand appears. He says it’s okay that Taako isn’t his soulmate back, and Taako doesn’t know why he doesn’t tell Ango the truth.

Kids. His soulmates are all kids.

Except as he strips out of his null suit, he sees his hip mark has turned into a scythe, clear as day. Kravitz isn’t a kid.

Four dates in he tries to tell Taako that his other marks aren’t blurry. A bear, a flower, a pair of pants, a quill, a ship’s wheel, and the smudge on his heart is just that: a heart.

Taako feels queasy, and angry, and Kravitz doesn’t mention it again.

Magnus has gray marks for Julia and Steven. Merle has matching unfocused marks for his kids, although Mavis’s willow tree is starting to come in quite nicely. Otherwise, they’re also a mess of blurs and Taako tries to think about what that might mean but he can’t ever seem to focus on it.

Lucretia wears long sleeves and high collars.

Davenport’s marks _move._ It’s not unheard of but it’s rare.

Taako can’t make them out. He doesn’t say anything when Magnus admits it’s the same for him.

On the day of story and song, Taako’s skin explodes into resplendent focus.

He can’t bring himself to touch his heart, not yet, but he reaches out for Magnus and Merle. They clasp hands. On contact, their marks practically hum with joy.

They have a world to save. And together, in heartbreaking, glorious understanding, they do.

The quill fades. And then, one morning, clutching Lup - he can’t just _hug_ her anymore, not yet - their hearts beat against each other’s chests, and the quill sharpens once more.

He doesn’t tell Lucretia outright. He’s still Taako, after all.

But he does bake her favorite macaroons.


End file.
